October 12th, 2022

Yeah, it's allergy season.  And oh my gracious what a terrible 'round we are experiencing this year!  I just absolutely hate it.  I dispise every single thing about having seasonal allergies.  And to date, there has not yet been a medication - prescription or over the counter - that really works for me.  And so we are reduced to treating symptoms.

It's not just the constant sneezing and coughing, it's really not.  Even though, if I dare step a toe out into public, when I sneeze (no matter that I sneeze into a tissue or my elbow pit) people stare daggers at me and stay far away.  I find myself apologizing and saying, "seriously, it's allergies people!" a lot.

And it's not the inevitable sore throat that goes along with all of the coughing and nasal drip (what a gross mental image that is!), I mean that's what soup, popsicles and ice cream were practically invented for, right?  Well those and a steady diet of cough drops.   I favour the Ricola Brand honey and lemon cough drops myself.  I don't know if they actually work any better than others, but I can tolerate the flavour more and that counts.

There is the muzzy-headed-ness naturally. I hate that part.  It feels as if my head were stuffed with cotton instead of brains, so don't ask me anything tricky, like my name. I'm even slower on the uptake than usual lately. I need real time and effort to sort out unexpected statements and questions.  Heck, even expected questions such as, "is dinner nearly ready?" take some serious mulling over to answer and that's while I'm standing at the stove cooking dinner!  Kind of scary.

Itchy eyes! Yes, we have those too. Of course we do. Itchy, sore, tired eyes.  For someone who loves to read as much as I do, that's a real issue.  I recently discovered antihistamine eye drops though, and honestly, they are like a miracle.  Stings a little bit when I first put them in, but aftewards...ahhhhh. So Much Better. The itchiness isn't completely gone you understand, but I not longer want to pluck my eyeballs from their sockets, give them a good scratch and put them back.   

And then there is the problem with my voice.  What voice?  If any sound at all comes out when I try to speak it kind of alternates between an adolescent boy's voice with all of the cracks and breaks and Gravel Gertie who smokes a box of stogies every day before lunch.  It would be funny if it wasn't so annoying.  AND, at the moment it is nigh on to impossible to talk on the telephone.  The person on the other end just thinks we have a bad connection.   I don't generally do a lot of phone talking anyway, but right now, I am doing exactly none. Which is, naturally, why the phone has been ringing off the hook lately.  Murphy's Law. Murphy must have thought allergies were highly amusing.  He's wrong. They are not.

This year the allergies have been so much worse than the past few. I'm not absolutely certain why this year is worse but I'm going to blame the hurricane.  I have no idea if it's true or not, but that's the stand I'm taking.   Actually the truth is that science is behind me on this one.  It's not just the mold and mildew and spores (yucky) that are stirred up, and the piles upon piles upon piles of foliage lining the roads and rotting where it sits creating yet more mold and mildew.  Part of the problem is the rain. And boy oh boy did we have rain galore in that Hurricane.  This is a quote from some medical journal:

"Why are my allergies worse after a storm?

Despite what you might think, the rain actually makes allergy symptoms worse for most people, instead of better. That's because the rain bursts the pollen particles prior to washing them away, putting higher concentrations of particles into the air."

And then there was the wind blowing all of those particles around and around and around....... sigh. And of course we generally have a nice little sea breeze wafting through on a regular basis.  Usually it feels refreshing and smells wonderful.  Right now it feels sneezy and stuffy and, frankly, I am ready for it to be over.

They say that once we have a good frost most of the allergens will be gone.  Well, that could take awhile.  We don't generally get those sorts of low's until January.  Drat.  This could be a longer haul than usual.  Sigh.

In the meantime, I have cough drops and tissues on my grocery list  AGAIN this week.  And I think I will have tee shirts made up that say, "It's Allergies, people, calm down!"